Geographical Factors of Cultural Adaptation in a Diaspora Scenario: Social Kinship Culture in Northern Henan, China

Abstract

The study of cultural adaptation needs to consider the factors of people and places, and the analysis of "geographical factors" is an important research direction. In order to analyze the causes of social kinship culture and the role of geographical factors in the process of acculturation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River Basin, two groups of acculturation cases were analyzed by using the literature method, participatory observation and semi-structured interviews. The findings show that: (1) the social kinship culture among different groups in northern Henan is formed under a specific geographic scenario of diaspora. The special geographical environment and location are prerequisites for exchange between social kin. Rain praying rituals and common beliefs within a specific radius maintain the ties of social relatives and perpetuate their culture. (2) The two sides follow the cultural adaptation processes of "separation, collision, convergence, and continuity." Integration strategies play an important role in maintaining grassroots unity and achieving social stability in this unique form of cultural adaptation. (3) Different geographical elements play different roles during different stages of cultural adaptation. Spatial and cultural distances must be within a specific range to sustain the culture of social relatives. (4) In scattered and mixed living environments, the culturally similar and different village groups have adopted "integration strategies" to achieve better cultural adaptation, expanding the scope of cultural adaptation in specific scenarios. This study argues that, under similar geographical environment and location conditions, two cultural groups within specific spatial and cultural distances can improve cultural adaptation by exchanging cultural adaptation integration strategies. This study provides a typical empirical case to analyze the geographical factors of cultural adaptation from the perspective of cultural geography, and a deeper explanation of the formation of social kinship culture and its cultural adaptation process. This helps enrich the knowledge and theoretical systems of cultural geography on the relationship between cultural layers.

Keywords

• geographic elements
• cultural adaptation
• integration hypothesis
• social kinship culture
• northern henan region